As an IT manager, you'd probably love to reverse the corporate perception of the help desk as a cost center. There are plenty of white papers out there with pie-in-the-sky visions for doing this. But you can hardly find a source for solid useable information like how to do trouble tickets-how they're input and updated-and organize your system.

This week our CIO for Hire, Jay Rollins, has written a two-part series on the features to look for in your ticketing systems, such as Active Directory/LDAP Integration ("It would be very helpful if the system can leverage the company directory and allow authentication tokens so you do not have to require separate logins. It also makes it easier to start filling in the Asset Management function.") and Issue capture ("All in all, you want to encourage the use of the form as the main channel for submitting issues. Free form issue submission wastes time because it usually takes more than one round of communication to get at the true problem.")

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About Toni Bowers

Toni Bowers is the former Managing Editor of TechRepublic and is the award-winning blogger of the Career Management blog. She has edited newsletters, books, and web sites pertaining to software, IT career, and IT management issues.

Full Bio

Toni Bowers is the former Managing Editor of TechRepublic and is the award-winning blogger of the Career Management blog. She has edited newsletters, books, and web sites pertaining to software, IT career, and IT management issues.